THE EMOTION OF THE IDEAL 145 



to be parasitic. It may flourish in the midst of 

 the other life around it, but it has no roots of its 

 own and it will wilt in the first stress of realism. 

 Nothing can supersede war in civilization except 

 some cause strong enough to overwhelm and 

 control that inborn heredity of the fight in man 

 which has come down in him from all the. ages 

 of the past and which has been carried by him 

 in particular into every institution of Western 

 civilization. 



Can such a cause ever exist in the world ? To 

 imagine it universally operative between nations 

 there is no answer but to turn to a cause now 

 operative between men within the civil law of 

 civilization. 



To the average man it scarcely ever occurs to 

 imagine the reason why the ordinary law-abiding, 

 honour-respecting citizen whom he meets in daily 

 life observes the law of civilization and never 

 dreams of becoming a swindler or a highwayman. 

 To the mind which is simply shrewd the overruling 

 reason seems to be that in civilization a well- 

 organized system of society resting on law, which 

 rests in turn on irresistible force, makes such a 

 course unreasonable by rendering it a venture 

 foolish and unprofitable in the extreme for any 

 person to attempt to break the law. That honesty 



10 



